The Complete Marvel Reading Order Guide

Welcome to the Comic Book Herald Complete Marvel Reading Order Guide. Some quick words of explanation that should help answer the most frequent questions.

In the years I’ve worked editing and updating this guide, I’ve focused primarily on the modern era of comics from the late 90’s through the 2000’s. If you’re interested in every year of Marvel, I recommend ‘My Marvelous Year‘ the Comic Book Herald reading club that takes you through every single of year of Marvel comics. You can also check out the Ultimate Guide to Marvel Unlimited for the best available comics throughout Marvel’s History (for example, I find Age of Apocalypse worth its own guide), or the individual character reading orders below. For the most part the list below is for the Marvel Universe around the launch of Marvel Knights and up through present day.

Otherwise, I believe the list is largely easy to follow. If you have questions, or guides you’d like to see, let me hear about it here.

This list is continually updated as new events occur, and as new trades are released, so if you’re interested in the power of reading your Marvel books in a chrono-logical order, you can subscribe to the Comic Book Herald Reading Club newsletter. Or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. This way you’ll be the first to know when the guide is updated! Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!

Dave’s Note: Important for new readers to know that Marvel in the 2000’s has two primary Universes. You have Earth-616, which is the main continuity that began all the way back in 1961 with Fantastic Four #1 (links below). And then you have the brand new Earth-1610 (the Ultimate Universe) which was launched to reimagine Marvel for the 2000’s (link above). They do not need to be read together, and only rarely cross over!

Dave’s Note: The Marvel NOW! reading order includes every Marvel comic from AvX Aftermath, Marvel NOW!, All-New Marvel NOW!, and series launched in 2015 leading up to Secret Wars. It is inclusive of below events, and is quite possibly the only guide you’ll ever need. I blacked out for like 3 weeks and this is what happened.

Dave’s Note: The All-New All-Different and Marvel Now 2.0 era of Marvel Comics is controversial, divisive, and at the end of the day, just a general downward slope from 2015’s Secret Wars. Nonetheless, there are still very good comics produced during this time, and I’ve provided a link above to the 20 essential reads getting you from Secret Wars to October 2017’s Marvel Legacy!

Notice: Comic Book Herald is not in any way associated with Marvel Comics. The site has never even been to New York. This guide is simply my personal attempt to catalog their materials for avid readers like myself. For official Marvel products and opinions, you can visit their website at Marvel.com.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

I don’t know if it was intentional or not but the Marvel NOW! reading order list is now much shorter than it was just a few days ago. I was working my way through it and was just about to get to Axis but now it stops shortly after Inhumanity.

I’m confused on the timeline. I don’t have a big comic book collection but I do have all four sets of marvel cards from 1990 to 1993 that I generally refer to for my facts on MCU. According to all those cards, all the major marvel movies in the past 18 years were all rooted in comics mostly from the 60s-80s. For example, the fight against Ultron, X-men versus sentinels, Apocalypse, iron man, etc. when I look at the stats for when these all occured in the comics its back in 1965 or 1985, etc. So on this list above that says these all occured in the comics in the 2000’s, did marvel rewrite all their comics again to coincide with movie releases? .

Hey Dave. I really love the comics, and have been following ur complete marvel reading order for a while. Im in the section right before Civil War.

My question is when is the multiverse established?i dont really get it that much, and the stuff with Captain Britain in House of M was so hard to understand. There also r multiple universes that some of the comics specifically focus on, so I was wondering where to find out how this all works better. Help would be much appreciated. Thx.

As someone who only got into comics recently I’ve been reading through most of this wonderful reading order for the past couple of years, the exceptions being the Cosmic and Ultimate comics. I figured I’d go back and read them separately once I finally catch up to the most recent stuff in Marvel Unlimited. But I’m now almost up to the 2015 Secret Wars and from what I understand of the premise I’m wondering whether it would be best to stop reading once I hit the event, then go back and read the Cosmic and Ultimate stuff before continuing. Any thoughts?

Glad you’ve been enjoying the CBH guides! I recommend reading core Ultimate Universe issues in my lead up to Secret Wars, so I fully endorse that plan. Marvel Cosmic is 1) great and 2) referenced in a number of the Secret Wars tie-ins, so I’d encourage checking out that saga before moving on as well!

Time works differently in marvel. An entire event, which can take a year to publish in real life might only take a couple days or weeks. And recently in marvel two-in-one they re-established the timeline, so that all the 60s comics took place in the late 90s

I’ve been reading comics since the late 1980s – mostly Marvel well, primarily Marvel), and I stopped in the early 2000s after I got married. I’ve had Marvel Unlimited for a little over a year now and have read a lot so far. I love your reading guide.

Just a quick question: I understand that Marvel Unlimited now has over 20K comics there, but that also that is not even nearly half of the comics Marvel has every released in its 75+ years (at least I think it is not nearly half). Do you know how many comics Marvel has published over the years? I’ve been searching on Google and have found some good discussions that attempt to address it, but is not actually addressed. So, I thought maybe you might know or point me in that right direction. LOL.

For starters, you have made probably the most comprehensive way to read comics that I’ve ever seen, and you’re doing wonders for helping everyone get caught up with the vast history of Marvel. I just had one concern:

After Secret Invasion and Dark Reign, you stop doing the “Comics to read between…” pages and started just doing events. I realize by this point that events don’t have a lot of space between them, but by doing this, I can’t seem to find the rest of Hickman’s Fantastic Four run, a lot of the Spidey Brain Trust stuff, and the Dan Slott Spidey run on the main list. Would you consider adding these runs and any I’m forgetting?

I just wanted to clarify something – is the Marvel NOW section of the reading order skippable if you plan on reading all the following groups? Because there is some overlap (as you have stated), and I was just wondering if the best option is to read JUST Marvel NOW and then skip to Secret Wars OR skip Marvel NOW then read all the following groups (Age of Ultron, Infinity, Original Sin etc.)?

What I’ve decided to do is follow your essential 25 stories from 1961-2000 and then read the modern marvel. I think after that I may go back and read the MMY stuff that I haven’t read. Do you think this is a good idea?

I’m just getting into comics after wanting to since I was like 15 years old (never did because it’s just so intimidating, though I did have what I thought was a decent collection when I was younger, and always loved easy to start series like Preacher, Watchmen, etc. but the superhero stuff is so hard to jump into for someone with completionist OCD like myself). Now that technology has made it so I don’t need to scour for paper copies of tens of thousands of issues just to get some sense of what’s going on in any given storyline, I’m taking the dive…. Your website is a life saver, I don’t have any sense of where to start, so having reading orders for so many characters, series, events, etc. is helpful beyond words. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this, and making it easier for new fans like myself to get into comics. Without your guides I’d never have found a way to get into comics again, thank you.

I wanted to say your reading order is being very useful so far and it has gotten me into reading Marvel Comics, so thanks for that.

However, I found a few mistakes in your issue by issue reading order and after reading I’m pieceing together a new list, which includes lots of issues you left out, corrects some issues placed wrong, and includes everything, straight and numbered.

I’m wondering if you would like to know about some of the corrections I’ve made, I’d love to share it and maybe you could tell me if there was a reason for those issues being out of order

I’m probably gonna sound like the most idiotic person on the face of the earth, but which series do you think would be best to start with? I’m assuming it is mentioned in this guide but I’m totally lost, as I am a teen who has never read a single marvel comic ever (since I didn’t have access to them when I was younger). I have a basic knowledge of the marvel universe through the movies and reading a couple things (I know the movies are loosely based, but I’ve read up on a couple of things here and there) But I want to start with the series that makes the most sense to start with. Either current or from some of the older comics. Thanks.

There’s so much that’s happened/happening, so much tied in, that it’s near-impossible to pick one place on the Marvel timeline to start. Just go with your favorite character, as far back as you can. Or the original Civil War, which set the stage for Secret Invasion and Dark Reign. More recent, probably Infinity and the things (mostly Avengers and Illuminati keyed) that led to Time Runs Out. Or jump back when and where you feel inspired or have questions why somehting is happening or what happened when (I’m following about 10 catch-up paths right now, shouldn’t have been Marvel-idle for 30 years!). Or follow any of CBH’s (Dave’s) magnificent trails and suggestions — there are a lot of columns here on where to begin and why. I was lucky: The first Marvel I read was “The Wedding of Reed and Sue” and that started me on figuring out the answer to that etrnal question: Who are all these people?

My recommendation on where to start if you’re fairly new to comics: Spider-Man: Brand New Day, starting with Amazing Spider-Man #546. It gives you 100+ issues of really good modern Spider-Man stories that don’t require any prior knowledge of the Marvel Universe.

Aside from that, it just depends on the character or what you’re interested in. The Modern Avengers starts with Disassembled and gives you a really solid backbone to the Marvel Universe from 2005-2015 if you follow the reading lists found here. It’s a good place to start because you’ll understand what’s going on in the wider Marvel universe when you’re reading solo books.

My Name is Quinn and Im 15 years old. I have always loved marvel movies and after watching 20 or so marvel superhero movies in a week I felt a push to start reading the comics. Under the belief that the marvel universe was one big continuity I set out to find more information and was completely overwhelmed. I found this website which has been quite helpful but im wondering If someone could give me some more information. What is or isn’t considered canon? What series are cannon and how do they connect to each other. Why do so many events have reading orders that jump from series to series?
Thank you to all.

Another question I forgot to ask was why do some issues of comics have things on the cover like “house of M’ or “civil war II” and not have it in the title of the issue and then in later issues the “house of M” is not on the cover?

I imagine you don’t intend this, but ‘canon’ across either DC or Marvel is actually a pretty loaded question.

The glorious history of superhero comic book universes is a double-edged sword, in that it offers more breadth and depth than any artistic medium, and it’s also confusing as #$$%#!####gocubs!@#*#&.

Very, very broadly speaking, Marvel ‘canon’ begins with Fantastic Four #1 in November, 1962 (technically that’s not even right, but I’m willing to incur the wrath of the original human torch loons in the crowd), and proceeds unfettered to present day.

By ‘unfettered’, I really mean “constantly fettered,” with any number of retcons, editorial mandates, and just flat-out time shaking up the status quo over the course of 50+ years.

Like… Marvel Comics are older than MY DAD, and he walked with the Dinosaurs. That’s a lot of history!

Ultimately, here’s how I approach the question of canon: It’s whatever the heck you want it to be.

Now, there are certain stories, or comics, that clearly exist outside the standard Marvel Universe continuity. For example, Spider-Man: Reign is set in a (potentially) alternate future.

The same is true for a series like Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, which reimagines the Spider-Man mythos as a perpetual high school drama.

How will you know if a series falls within “standard” Marvel continuity? Much like porn in Washington D.C., you’ll know it when you see it. Generally speaking, the Comic Book Herald reading orders will make a note if a book falls outside standard continuity. Naturally, I recommend you follow the guides for an easier path.

Boy that’s confusing. The most important lesson, at the end of this and every day, is to enjoy the comics!

Just wanted to thank you for this amazing information. I stopped reading comics back in the early 70″s except for occasional trades. I’m old enough (61) that I remember buying and reading X-Men from issue #1 back in early 60’s . In the last 2 days I have read the Inhumans run and 30 issues of Deadpool, following your guide and I love it. I hope to introduce my 10 year old grandson to this new world while he’s out of school this summer. Once again, thank you!

Hi Im looking for a novel not with pictures but a novel in form say like Lord of the Rings. The reason is I want to visualize what Im reading. I also want to read a see how the marvel universe all intertwines vs watching the movies along with getting more detail about everything. Yes watching the movies is great but I’m looking to read about it and as I said not looking for graphic novel. Any help be awesome

There are a number of good books like you seek. Known as prose novels. Most come in paperback. Hard to find in bookstores or comics shops, not worth it for them to carry. But check your local library (surprsiing what you can find there!) or Amazon. I’d recommend the novelization of Secret Wars. Also recent ones about Avengers, Ant-Man and Deadpool. Older ones on X-Men, Spider-Men, Iron Man, etc. Have come out in the past under Marvel Press, Marvel Books and many other publishers like Bantam. Might Wiki for an easy list of prose novels (list of novels based on comics), which will also point you to DC and other characters. I still prefer Robert E. Howard’s Conans best of all… Let me know if you want more info!

Here’s the link to Marvel prose novels (as provided me by Marvel CS, but I already had it, was just asking them why they didn’t have a list on their webpages, especially of ones planned this year). Supposed to be a brand new (April) one about Captain America you might ask your bookstore about, and a couple more later this year.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_novels_based_on_comics

Hi there! I’m new to reading marvel comics…by new I mean I haven’t started yet :/ I’ve been doing tons of research to try to figure out how I should go about starting, and this site has been such a huge help to get sense of what I’m about to get myself into! Now that I have a better feel for how all of this works and the different ways I can go about this, there are only a couple of things I don’t understand. The Complete Marvel Reading Order Guide mentions that Secret Wars should be read after Disassembled but before House of M, however Secret Wars is also recommended to be read after Marvel NOW!…I guess my confusion is in regard to what exactly is Marvel NOW! is. I’m intrigued because it seems like it might be a reboot and the most appropriate place to start for new readers, but the fact that it is supposed to be read after AvX and before Secret Wars makes me wonder if it isn’t a reboot but instead a continuation of modern Marvel and the Earth 616 universe, and if it’s a continuation then I feel like I should start from the pre-Disassembled guide 1 to get the full story for the 616 universe. So what is Marvel NOW! exactly and what would be the consequences of starting with it as apposed to starting with Guide 1?

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Hey, I was wondering if you had or could do an Individual Character/Team Guide of sorts for Victor Von Doom? What comics should I read to get his story from his very beginning to present? I’d really appreciate an article on that. Should I just read some Fantastic four issues? which ones? Anything really Doom centric so far?